Law Department Management Blog
“Creativity,” the subject of several forays on this blog, is a tough term to define. Fortunately, an article by Angela Stevens, “An Examination of Job Satisfaction and Creative Work Environments, OD Practitioner, Vol. 38, No. 3 2006 at 36, cites an expert’s definition (Theresa Amabile): “business creativity is an idea that is “original, useful and actionable” and it is “the first step in innovation.” A good start, but my personal view is that anytime a law department does something new for itself, that is just as good as something done that no one has attempted before.
If lawyers inside and outside are so smart, why aren’t they more creative? My article, published in Legal Times, Jan. 22, 2007, peels back some of the reasons why innovation comes so hard.